This book reads Jean-Jacques Rousseau with a view toward deepening our understanding of many political issues alive today, including the place of women in society, the viability of traditional family structures,

The fundamental litmus test for American democracy-its economy, government, criminal justice system, education, mass media, and culture-remains: how broad and intense are the arbitrary powers used and deployed against black people. In this sense, the problem of the twenty-first century remains the problem of the color line. –from the new Preface

The importance of the hedonic valuation approach in public policy evaluation and environmental value estimation is now widely accepted. This text is especially designed to illustrate the basic assumptions of the hedonic approach and highlight the strengths and weaknesses associated with it.